Another cell phone gadget I didn’t know I needed.

by Paz

Here’s a gadget that looks like it could be useful, but I can’t decide. It’s a standby mobile phone battery charger for when you don’t have your charger with you, or access to an electrical outlet. It’s cheaper than a second battery, and because it comes with 5 different adaptors you can use it for other phones too.

It covers a wide range of mobiles but not the Nokia 6000 range interestingly enough, maybe because the voltage rating is too high.

The backup charger costs $30, uses four AAA-type batteries and comes with a handy key ring. The problem is; I’m not sure if it’s a good idea to use a battery to charge another battery. There’s something in the back of my mind about a physics lesson on power dissipation when connecting two similar batteries – I’m sure it’s very inefficient because both will get hot.